Apple Wins, Samsung Loses 2007 User>Driven Hall of Fame and Shame

Well, the votes are in and, unlike in the Democratic primaries, the winners and losers are clear from the voting. Thanks to everyone who nominated their most and least favorite products and services of 2007 and to everyone who voted on those nominations, either publicly via comments or privately via email.

Apple Wins the 2007 User>Driven Hall of Fame

With multiple nominations for Leopard, the iPhone, the iPod Touch and AppleTV, Apple had the critical mass to lift them head and shoulders among others. Yes, Apple is a company and not a product or a service, but the consistency of nominations and votes for their products and services prompted me to award them the title collectively.

"This is easy. The best product is Apples' Leopard OS. The worst is Vista. I would have said the iPhone is the best, but the opportunity to compare / contrast Apple and MS for each of their OS releases was too compelling."

"iPhone anyone??"

"I'd have to second (or maybe third) the iPhone as best. If this is truly a competition of design then it wins hands down. The small technical and pricing issues with it don't come anywhere close to outweighing the elegance of the UI and user experience. That said, I'm waiting (seemingly forever) for the 3G version :)"

"ON THE POSITIVE side, I'm going to nominate the iPod Touch, especially in light of the software upgrade announced on Tuesday. As soon as Some Bright Mind figures out how to rig an audio in microphone and get VOIP working on it, it will become my must-have device."

"I'm going to go ahead and cast my ballot for Leopard. I'm really most intrigued by its contrast with Vista, the way it shows off what an OS can do if it's not hobbled by coming from Microsoft."

HONORABLE MENTION goes to the Blueline Power Cost Monitor for the greenest product nominated. I used this at home and with what I learned I was able to reduce my electricity usage by about 25% on a sustainable basis. By translating usage into dollars in real time, it quickly helps you learn what sucks the money out of your wallet and look for ways to save.

Samsung u540 V CAST Music Phone Wins 2007 User>Driven Hall of Shame

There was enough complaining about this one particular low-cost music phone from Samsung that it had to be the winner overall. (It was nominated twice in the first two responses to the contest announcement.)

"Every time I pick it up I accidentally engage two or three different buttons. Most times, my fumbling gets me to one step short of snapping a photo. And if you are not careful, it will snap shut on you while you are trying to open it to answer the phone"

"Worst product is my wife's Samsung cell phone."

"I keep my votes to the...Samsung phone (worst), as it has only proved itself worse every day."

DISHONORABLE MENTION goes to iTunes movie rentals for their 24-hour policy. Renting movies right from your TV or your Mac and moving them easily between devices seems like a dream come true - unless you are one of those people who have a hard time finding two hours at a stretch to watch an entire movie (and who doesn't?). Pause your movie until tomorrow then try to pick it up again on a different device and poof! It's gone.

Nomination Awards 

As promised, User>Driven t-shirts go out to those who nominated the winners. Glen was the first to mention Apple in his post about Leopard vs. Vista. Gina (my sister - full disclosure) jumped in early with the Samsung u540. Congratulations and thanks for playing our game!

Comments

[Bruce McCarthy]

From Gina (who won a User>Driven t-shirt for nominating the Samsung u540 for the Hall of Shame):

Wow! I can’t believe it – I have so many people to thank, especially Hammad from the Verizon store who made this seem like such a good deal for such a highly functional phone. Boy, was Hammad wrong! Without his charm and persuasive sales skills I would not be out on the world wide web slamming this terrible, crappy, pain in the !#@#%(# product! Thank you Hammad!